An Unexpected Christmas
by LadyArcherfan
Summary: It's winter in Seattle, the siege is still on TC, but who says there can't be some holiday cheer?


"**An Unexpected Christmas" **

**By:** LadyArcherfan

A/N: Set at some point after "Freak Nation". Apparently the Christmas spirit and some writing prompts on LiveJournal got my muse going again.

General, holiday, Max/Alec friendship.

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><p>It was winter in Seattle. That just meant it was colder, wetter, and generally more miserable than it had otherwise been for the transgenics in Terminal City. The siege was still on, though time had weakened it. No one inside TC could walk out the front door, but they certainly could get out other ways without too much trouble, if they took some precautions. Or, at least they could get in and out to get supplies, so starving them out hadn't worked out as planned for the Ordinaries and Familiars.<p>

There was snow on the ground, though it probably wouldn't last long. The buildings in TC had been renovated enough to keep the cold out, so the snow wasn't a real problem, though some were better than others; the control room was probably the warmest. Max stood with Luke and Dix around the computer monitors, discussing the movement of the National Guard and SPD around the gate as displayed on the cameras. She watched as the snow drifted down on top of the Guardsmen to turn to brown sludge under their boots as they patrolled; they looked more disgusted with their current lot in life than the transgenics, which was saying quite a bit. Morale had been steadily declining on both sides as time wore on. Sieges did that.

The roar of a truck and excited shouts echoed from the back courtyard without warning. Luke scrambled to shift the cameras' focuses, but Max simply blurred out of the room to look.

A crowd of cheering transgenics followed and surged towards a supply truck as it rumbled to the center of the yard. Joshua drove, his long haired head stuck out the open window to howl in triumph with the others. The bed of the truck was piled high with bales and bundles of various sizes. And balancing on top of the load, grinning like a madman and dusted with snow, was Alec.

"Merry Christmas, Terminal City!" he bellowed, dragging out the words like some Pre-Pulse sports announcer. "OK, Josh, you can stop!" Before the truck had settled into park he started tossing the packages out to the crowd, with orders of where they should go.

"Joshua, jump out and take that to the mess hall but don't sample anything! Dalton, you can take these to the control room! Mole! This box is ammo, that one is cigars!"

Max had worked her way through the excited crowd by that point. Alec saw her and grinned as he scooped up another package.

"Hey ya Max! Toilet paper! Catch!"

She caught the bundle as the crowd roared in laughter and glee as the packages began to open under eager hands. Handing off the toilet paper to a nearby transhuman, she jumped lightly onto the truck.

"Alec, what is all this?" she demanded.

He handed down a box to an X-6 and said, "For Luke and his computers. Don't drop it, it's fragile! OK, let's get some more people over here to help unload, it's all labeled!" Only then did he turn and look at Max. "Did you forget the date or something, Max?"

She hesitated for less than a second and then replied. "It's December twenty fifth, so?"

"Oh, come on, you've been out in the world longer than I have - haven't you ever heard of Christmas?" He hopped down off the truck and out of the way of the crowd of help that swamped the vehicle.

She looked at him incredulously. "Really? You think the fact that we're in the middle of a siege is a good reason to celebrate?"

"Why not?" he shrugged, but his eyes were serious. "We've made it this far, no one's actually attacking us, and no one's died or even been shot recently. Why _shouldn't_ we celebrate?"

When she struggled to come up with an appropriate response, he shook his head. "Jeeze, Max, you can give a great speech, but actually getting you to boost morale is like pulling teeth."

She flinched at the sudden memory that phrase supplied her with as she looked at Alec's green eyes, bright with manic energy.

He realized what he'd said as well, winced, and said in a softer tone, "It's the middle of winter, the weather is crap, we're under siege, but I got booze and candy and all sorts of good stuff for everyone. We can party a bit before rationing again."

"How do you know all about Christmas to go gung-ho over it?" she asked suddenly.

"Manticore didn't just give classes in Common Verbal Usage before sending us out on missions. I know about a bunch of traditions and holidays. I'm just partial to Christmas, myself."

"Any excuse to party?" Max asked, mocking.

Alec pursed his lips, eyebrows quirked thoughtfully, and she wasn't sure if he was playing along or being serious. "Basically, yeah."

The crowd was thinning as everyone either moved to carry supplies to their needed places or was simply distracted by the goodies they'd discovered. Alec crawled back onto the truck and kept tossing boxes and bags out to any nearby transgenic.

"Where did you get all of that anyway?" Max asked as she joined him.

"Who do you think's been your scrounger for how long? I have connections."

She glared at him. "And you only managed to get this stuff now?"

"It's the spirit of the season, Max!" When she only lifted an eyebrow he admitted, "So I pulled a few strings harder than usual. And Joshua helped."

"Joshua helped how?" She paused and then said in horror, "Alec, _please_ tell me you didn't take him with and use him to scare people! You could have started another riot!"

"Max, you wound me! Do I _look_ like an idiot?" Alec, demanded, putting his hand over his heart. "Like me, Joshua's more than just a pretty face."

The transhuman in question appeared at that point. "Rita still likes Joshua's paintings," he said proudly.

"And, out of all the people that like Joshua's stuff, she's the only one who knows what Josh looks like, and she's cool with it," Alec added. "Her buyers just like all the paint splashing and bright colors." He reached into the cab of the truck and pulled out a flat box. "Here you go, Big Fella; from Rita with love. She wanted to make sure your muse had enough stuff to work with."

"Thank you, Alec," Joshua gushed, opening the box to reveal a rainbow's array of paints.

"Thank Rita, not me. I'm just the messenger boy," Alec shrugged.

"Well, then, messenger boy," Max snapped, "are you going to tell me how you pulled this all off?"

Alec shoved a box into her arms. "I know I can walk and talk at the same time, but can you listen and walk? I wanna decorate the control room."

"Alec . . ."

He held up a finger. "Help me and I'll tell you. If not, then you can just simmer in the mystery of how awesome I can be."

She huffed. "Fine."

The excited smile lit up his entire face again. He grabbed a bag and tossed it over his shoulder and started inside, grimacing as his feet slid around in the dirty slush coating the ground. Max groaned and followed.

"So where's this story you keep promising me?"

"The one about the stuff today or the one about my first away mission where I spent basically the whole time at the beach in Miami, shirtless and surrounded by beautiful women?" Alec started, looking perfectly serious.

Hands full, she couldn't punch him, so she just slammed her shoulder into him, making him stagger and slip in the snow.

"Ouch! All right Maxie, no need to get violent!"

He launched into a surprisingly terse account of how he had been lining up deals for over a month, bargaining like he had never done before to get the most for the transgenics – all without tipping off any authorities that large amounts of supplies were being moved from place to place. And he had obviously succeeded. The smugness rolling off of him as he concluded was palpable.

Max had to concede that Alec was the ideal scrounger for several reasons. His vast network of contacts and knowledge of where to deal or steal rivaled even hers, despite his short time in Seattle. Secondly, he hadn't been publically noted as a transgenic yet, despite all the TV cameras that had been floating around; the same couldn't be said for her. She had to admit, after all the time and energy she wasted saving his sorry butt, Alec was actually a valuable team member.

"Joshua's paintings brought in a load of cash, so that made getting all of this easier," Alec said, tossing the bag onto the table in the center of the control room.

Max slammed the box down. "You jerk! Don't tell me you just took all of that money that should be Joshua's, though I don't know what he'd do with it-"

"Calm down! Seriously, do I not look like a responsible adult?"

"You may look like it; acting like it is another thing."

Alec made a face, ruining any pretext of looking like an adult. "Ha ha. I didn't _take_ any money from Joshua. He wanted to give it all to me to use, but I convinced him to keep some of it safe for himself." He opened the bag and the box, a mess of green and red spilling onto the table. "You know, for him to use, in a brighter future."

Max blinked, astonished at Alec's words. Sure, she hoped that the siege would end, that the transgenics wouldn't be hunted like animals, but she was surprised that Alec saw that future clear enough to encourage Joshua to plan for it.

Alec saw her look. "What? You gotta give the big guy hope – only way he's gonna make it through this. Or any of us, really. Hence all the Christmas cheer. Are you gonna help me decorate or not?" He grabbed an armful of garland, glittering green and gold and red and silver. "Hey, Luke! Where can I put this around the computers without it catching fire?"

She frowned at the pile of decorations. "I can't believe you spent money and time trying to get this junk!"

"My own money, my own time, Maxie," Alec called back as he looped garland around the railings of the computer center.

"What?"

"You hard of hearing? Should invest in earplugs when you ride your bike or something."

She gave up. If Alec wanted to celebrate and blow his money, that was up to him. The fact that he had managed to get much needed supplies allowed her to forgive him. The smiles and happy chatter, rare and long absent from TC, made her willing to help decorate. She wasn't happy about it, but it was for the greater good.

By the time Alec was satisfied, several hours later, the command room was festooned and bedecked and generally overloaded with tinsel, garland and happily blinking lights. The truck had been unloaded, and a decent pile of goods grew up from the floor. Most of the populace was jammed into the room, spilling out the open doors into halls and adjoining rooms, talking and laughing, or in cases like Mole, looking perpetually sullen at having to be involved in social gatherings. Max stood up by the computers with her arms crossed across her chest, surveying the mass below. Alec, finishing with some tinsel, dusted his hands and all but skipped down the steps.

"All right, you guys! I've got some good stuff for everyone. And I'm going to take the responsible route and say no alcohol for the X-8's. Or at least don't let me see. Let's get this party started!"

Packets of junk food, bags of candy, and bottles of booze seemed to float around the room, amazingly shared evenly throughout the transgenics. If it was from habit born of rationing or some sort of Christmas spirit, Max couldn't be sure; all she knew was that it seemed to be a good thing.

"Why am I not surprised you're the only glum one here?"

She jumped a little as Alec appeared at her elbow, tumbler of scotch in each hand.

"I'm not glum! Just thinking."

He handed her one of the glasses. "Loosen up a bit Max. Look, even Mole is enjoying himself."

She rolled her eyes but saw the big transhuman laugh at some joke, a new cigar clamped in his teeth. Alec nudged her elbow and she took the cue, sipping at the scotch. After drinking Crash's watered down beer and Logan's wines, the stuff burned more than she was used to, but was impressively smooth.

"It's good," she told him, managing to mask her surprise with blunt approval.

"Only the best on Christmas," he grinned, tossing back his own drink with decided practice and pleasure.

Several moments passed as Max slowly drank the amber liquor, grinning at the antics of her fellow transgenics as they celebrated a holiday that had no real meaning to them, reveling in their lives and forgetting that any sense of freedom they had was just an illusion. Maybe Alec had been right, they all needed this. It was a breather, a moment to regroup before the battle started again. She saw the rebuilding of the energy and determination in every single transgenic that had waned in the long months after the flag raising. She saw hope again.

"Hey, look at this," Alec said, the wonderment in his voice marred by the humor.

Max blinked out of her contemplations to see Alec dangling a piece of greenery over her head. "Cat nip?" she guessed wryly.

"Seriously? It's mistletoe!" When she just lifted an eyebrow he groaned. "Christmas tradition, if you're under it with someone, you're supposed to kiss them."

"I know what it is," she shot back. "What makes you think I'd kiss you?"

"Tradition? No? How about in thanks for arranging all of this."

"Hmm," she said, bringing her hand to her mouth in serious consideration. Then she quickly kissed her knuckles and punched Alec lightly on the chest.

"Ouch! Well, a kiss with a fist is better than none," he muttered, but a grin still pulled at his lips. "You're welcome, by the way."

"TC's first Christmas party," she mused. "We might have to make it an annual thing."

"As long as it eventually turns into a reunion," Alec agreed. He lifted his glass in a salute. "Hey, Terminal City! Merry Christmas!"

The response from the crowd below was as loud and joyful as it was raucous.

_Fin. _


End file.
